Fentanyl has statistically significantly longer recovery time than sufentanil among children after inguinal hernia repair: Study

A study led by Wen Chen et al. and colleagues, published in BMC Surgery, concluded that Anesthesia induction with fentanyl or sufentanil is associated with different postoperative recovery times following laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair in children belonging to other age groups.

Researchers conducted a pilot randomized clinical trial from February to December 2022 to evaluate postoperative recovery times in children undergoing laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair with anaesthesia induced by fentanyl compared to sufentanil. There were two age groups, 2-6 and 6-12 years old, and children were randomly assigned into either the fentanyl (2 µg/kg) or sufentanil (0.2 µg/kg) group. Postoperative recovery time was the primary outcome, while secondary outcomes included surgical and anaesthetic durations, intubation duration, and intraoperative hemorrhage.

Key findings from the study are:

• Each group had 75 children, with a total of 300 children.

• Children in the 2-6-year-old group receiving fentanyl had shorter postoperative recovery times compared to those receiving sufentanil.

• On the contrary, children in the 6–12-year-old group who received fentanyl had longer postoperative recovery times than children who received sufentanil.

• There were comparable Baseline characteristics and secondary outcomes between the two groups.

In this study, we showed that fentanyl and sufentanil resulted in different postoperative recovery times in pediatric patients in other age groups, they said.

This is the first study to compare fentanyl and sufentanil in different age groups of children. The findings of our study highlighted that different analgesic medications should be considered in children of various ages.

The main limitations were the small sample size in a single research center and the exclusion of pain intensity or potential side effects from the medications.

Reference:

Chen, W., Guoyang, H., Yu, H. et al. Comparisons of fentanyl and sufentanil on recovery time after inguinal hernia repair in children: a randomized clinical trial. BMC Surg 24, 55 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12893-024-02346-x